


Ironing out old wrinkles

by BWolf_20



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Dominant Dwight, Dominant wives of Negan, Gen, Iron to the face, Mutilation, Negan in pain, Negan is a bastard, Negan is punished, No Mercy, No Sympathy for Negan, Prisoner of War, Punishment, The Iron
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-22
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-06-14 09:00:13
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,799
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15385332
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BWolf_20/pseuds/BWolf_20
Summary: As a request from the ex-wives, Negan is brought back to the Sanctuary to get a taste of a notorious punishment he’d dish out to others. A facial meeting with the iron.





	Ironing out old wrinkles

**Author's Note:**

> Wrote this in one day!   
> I had an idea for Negan to get a taste of his own medicine!

Negan groaned harshly and frowned from the slight pound in his head. It never felt good to be knocked out, especially when his previous enemy had been behind it. He blinked a few times before opening his eyes. Right away he realized he wasn’t in his cell. Instead he was in a familiar gray environment where a crowd was standing several feet away, staring straight at him. He noticed some familiar faces in that crowd, but no one dropped to their knees or smiled at the sight of him.

He made a move to rise, but was prevented from doing so as he was tied securely in place to a chair; a familiar chair. 

“The fuck?” he questioned as he acknowledged the fact that he was truly back at the Sanctuary, his old home, and he had no idea why he’d been brought here.

After wiggling proved to be a useless way to get free, he looked to the silent observers.

“Hey, what the fuck is going on? I want a goddamn explanation, and it better be goddamn good.”

“Oh, it is,” said a familiar voice.

Making his way from the back of the crowd was Rick who seemed quite pleased to see him in such a position. Negan just flashed a grin and laughed at Rick’s apparent need to prove his power.

“You taking over the Sanctuary now prick? Figure you can pass as me?” He shook his head at the absurdity of it. “I can tell you right now, you’d make one sorry-ass Negan.”

“This has nothing to do with me taking over the Sanctuary,” Rick replied evenly. “In fact, it’s not about me at all. This is about what they want.”

He indicated the stairwell with a nod. Negan looked over to see the extremely familiar faces of his wives moving along it and making their way down. They were a sight for sore eyes, but none of them were smiling. A few of them tossed him glares, but the rest kept their eyes down. Negan wished they’d at least sport the black dresses instead of the random casual clothing they wore. 

“Well if you aren’t the sweetest sight to behold. My dick’s already hard as steel and aching like a son of a bitch.” 

He looked to each of them, desiring to see a flicker of reaction from them, and that’s when he noticed the one wife that had always been quite special in the past. Sherry momentarily met his eyes before dropping them.

“Are my goddamn eyes deceiving me, or is that really Sherry?” He chuckled as he looked her up and down. “Knew you couldn’t stay away darling.”

She said nothing in response. She just followed the others as they filed in a single line before the crowd. Negan looked at them, expecting some kind of sign that they were concerned with whatever Rick was planning to do to him. They were his people afterall, but all he saw were sour looks and traces of anger.

“What the hell’s going on Rick? You parade my wives down here to try and humiliate me somehow?”

“Rick has nothing to do with this,” Sherry suddenly cried.

He raised his brow at the edge in her tone. 

“So the fucking silent treatment is finally over? Since it is, why don’t you tell me where the hell you’ve been? You up and leave just because that doctor let you out?”

“This doesn’t have anything to do with me. This is all about you, and what’s about to happen.”

Negan quirked a brow in curiosity.

“Really? And what the fuck is about to happen? Unless you’re about to take a ride on my dick, I’m not fucking interested.”

The crowd parted as yet another familiar face made his way forward.

“Doesn’t matter if you’re interested or not,” said Dwight. 

Negan’s delighted expression dropped at the sight of his once most trusted lieutenant. 

“Dwighty boy, glad you could join the party,” he said as he smirked. He wasn’t at all nervous about his presence, but the continued surprising reveals was agitating him just a bit. “You here to explain just what the fuck this is about?”

“I’d be glad to.”

Dwight stepped right up to him and came to a halt with his hands on his hips. 

“I imagine you realize what chair you’re sitting in,” he said in something of a condescending tone. 

Negan decided to humor him.

“As a matter of fact I do, but I can’t say it’s a good way to welcome me back.”

“This chair is for a specific purpose, as you well know. And right behind you, if you remember, is the furnace.” Dwight leaned in close so he could stare him straight in the eyes on his level. “And do you know what’s in that furnace right now?”

Negan just stared back at him, unimpressed. 

“You think you can scare me Dwighty boy? Get me shitting my pants just the way you did when I ironed that pretty face of yours til it was nice and crispy.” His tone dripped with barely contained anger. “You don’t have the balls to scare me. In case you didn’t know, Rick’s kept me his personal prisoner for the last couple of months, so pardon the fuck out of me if I’m not shaking in my boots. Rick’s not gonna let you touch me.”

“You’re wrong about that,” Rick spoke up, stealing Negan’s attention. “Why do you think I brought you here in the first place?”

“Mind fucks won’t work on me.”

“This isn’t a mind fuck,” Sherry said. “This was a request, from all of your ex-wives.”

They were all meeting his eyes. A few, like Tanya, were actually giving him a wicked smile. Negan couldn’t deny the slight squeeze in his heart from the betrayal. None of them showed an ounce of sympathy. He looked around at the others, expecting to see at least one Savior express a need to defend their leader. There were none to be seen. If anything, a couple of them refused to look his way.

“Let me get this straight,” he started as he stared back at them. “You all have some kind of fucked up agreement to iron my gorgeous face? What the fuck for? That punishment is for anyone who breaks the rules.”

“That punishment is for criminals,” Dwight added. “You are a criminal. You’re a prisoner.”

“Who hasn’t broken a single goddamn rule!”

“The rule that’s been broken, was every horrible thing you ever did to us,” Sherry declared. 

“Keeping us a sex slaves,” Tanya hissed. 

“You were wives!” Negan growled. “My damn wives, and I never forced any damn thing on you!”

“Fear,” she replied simply. “You used fear to get what you wanted. To keep us all in line. That was harmful enough, especially on us!”

The other wives murmured noises of agreement. 

“You had a choice,” Negan muttered.

“I didn’t feel like I had a choice,” Amber spoke up quietly. She appeared to be afraid to look at him. “I was scared. I didn’t want to be your wife, but I was scared of what you’d do to my mom and Mark if I didn’t. After what you did to Mark, my fear was confirmed.”

Negan thought back to the moment he burned her boyfriend’s face. He had no concern for it. Mark had broken a rule by screwing his wife, and he wasn’t going to take that.

“So that’s what this is about? You ladies are so unhappy about our time in bed together, you’d resort to this shit?”

“It’s not just about that,” said Sherry. “It’s about everything. Enslaving communities and demanding half of their supplies.”

“Forcing us into submission,” said Dwight.

“Kidnapping and killing my people,” added Rick. “You’re serving your time in a cell for all the horrible things that you’ve done, but I was asked to extend that punishment.”

Negan glowered at him. He didn’t want to admit that he was starting to get nervous. He could even feel himself starting to sweat.

“And what’s the fucking point of this Rick? What am I supposed to learn from a damaged face?”

Dwight moved in front of Negan and stared him down with his darkest glare. 

“You’ll remember what you did, that’s the fucking point.” His tone was deadly serious, so much so that Negan felt a little impressed. Dwight pointed at the ugly scars mutilating the left side of his face. “I never forgot, after you did this to me. It’ll be the same for you. Every time you touch your face or look into a mirror, you’ll be reminded of the day your people refused to be fucked by you any longer.”

Negan was fuming now.

“Fucked huh? Everything I did was to keep you ungrateful bastards alive, so how the hell were you fucked over? You had it good under me Dwight. Admit it.”

“I didn’t have it good when I had to lose my wife.” He looked around at Sherry whose eyes softened greatly. “I didn’t have it good when I had to turn into something I wasn’t, doing terrible shit to others under your orders. You didn’t make me feel strong or safe. You made me feel weak and scared, so much so I couldn’t even run away from this place without turning back around, groveling for forgiveness. Your system wasn’t the right way to live. It trapped us and turned us into fucking animals. That’s what I mean I say you fucked us.”

Dwight turned away from him and dropped his hands on his hips. He released a steady breath as if to relieve himself from heavy emotion. He let Negan stew on what he’d said, but he didn’t expect the man to really take it in.

“Jesus Dwight, I never knew you felt that way,” Negan said mockingly. He even flashed a grin. 

Dwight spun around to face him, then shot his eyes past the man.

“I think that iron should be ready.”

The grin was gone from Negan’s face as Dwight moved out of his sight. Sherry came forward, looking just as displeased with him as she always had in the past.

“Come on Sherry baby,” Negan began, “do your thing and talk the man out of whatever shit he’s trying to pull. It’s not too late to get forgiveness.”

Sherry didn’t answer right away as she put all her strength into turning his chair sideways. Now Negan was able to turn to his right and see the furnace clearly. Dwight looked back at him before looking back at the iron which already looked red hot, literally. Negan felt the sweat coming down even more.

“You should be asking for our forgiveness,” she said in his ear.

Negan tensed now. He looked around at Dwight just as he was putting on the protective glove. 

“Fuck,” he muttered under his breath. 

“I wanted to be the one to do it,” Sherry confessed, “But, I thought Dwight deserved to do it more.”

Now wasn’t the time to appear weak, but Negan was sure it was starting to show on his face. He looked at her and right away saw only calmness. She wasn’t at all fearful for what her ex was about to do to him, and he found it hard to believe.

“After all the sweet times we’ve shared together, you’d really let him do that to me? Didn’t what we had mean anything to you?”

Sherry leaned in closer as a sneer spread across her face.

“Not a damn thing.”

Negan looked at Dwight again and watched as he lifted the iron out of the fire. He could practically feel the heat from the powerful orange glow of the metal. Feeling desperate, he turned to Rick.

“Rick…goddamn it…you wouldn’t let them do this shit to me. You promised you weren’t going to hurt me.”

“And I’m keeping that promise, because I’m not going to be the one that hurts you.”

Negan looked at Dwight as he made the journey toward him.

“If this fucking kills me, I suppose you’ll be satisfied.” He couldn’t help letting his eyes shift to the approaching iron.

“It’s not going to kill you,” Dwight confirmed. Negan barely realized his mouth was starting to hang open as the iron hovered right before his eyes. 

“We had, a doc,” Negan replied slowly without looking away from one of his past punishers. “We don’t anymore.”

“We have Siddiq,” Rick chimed in. “He’s waiting just outside. I wasn’t going to make him watch.”

Negan shut his eyes briefly as a barely audible gasp escaped his lips. He opened them and looked up at Dwight, face expressing a cross between fear and rage. Dwight took a step closer and Negan attempted to jolt back. He squirmed as he made a pitiful attempt to escape the ropes tying him down, but it was too tight. 

“Come the fuck on! You don’t have to fucking do this!” He hated how he was starting to sound panicked. He glanced at the surrounding Saviors. At people like Arat who’d been quite loyal to him. Now such people looked like they didn’t give a shit. “I’m already paying for it damn it! I did what I had to do to keep you alive! Where’s my fucking thanks!”

“You kept us alive the only way you knew how, but it wasn’t good enough,” Dwight admitted. “I don’t suppose you have a preference for which side you want me to burn.”

Negan glanced at the burning iron once more.

“No…no, you don’t have to do this…please. I never wanted to iron anyone. It was for everyone’s safety. Rules are important.”

Dwight smirked at the fear rising in the man.

“I want you to know how it felt Negan, when you pressed this damn iron to my face. How it burned into my flesh. How it felt like my fucking brain was going up in flames. How you took part of me away with these goddamn scars!” He paused and searched his eyes, desiring to see if Negan understood. “So yeah, I have to do this.”

Negan leaned his head away, but it made no difference to Dwight. He moved the glowing iron toward the right side of his face, then pressed in fast and hard. The scream that tore from Negan’s throat, expressed just how excruciating it had been for him. 

Negan didn’t think such a pain could have existed as the flesh of his face sizzled. Tears were already running down his cheeks as the feeling of suffocation struck. He was convinced his whole head was on fire. He could even feel it in his right eye even though the iron wasn’t touching it, but it was damn close. The blinding shock of fire sent his mind into a whirl. He couldn’t think as his brain was frying. He was partially aware of the smell of the skin cooking. Steam was in his eyes and he couldn’t escape the crinkling sound. His mouth was forever opened in a horrible wail, which didn’t match the powerful figure he had been. 

The audience of Saviors, wives, and Rick, stood silently and calmly as they watched the display. Sherry glared at Negan as he suffered; as weak jolts coursed through his body. The jolts were getting more powerful as if he was seizing up. She looked at Dwight who kept his eyes focused on keeping the iron in place. There was not an ounce of mercy written on his stone cold expression. Sherry turned to Amber. For the first time she looked defiant. It was a stark difference from the depressed look she always sported.

Things blurred in Negan’s eyes. He no longer felt control of his body as it began to slump against the chair. The screaming never seemed to stop as his face was torn apart. But darkness was threatening to consume him. After a moment he felt less pressure as Dwight lessened the force of the iron against him. 

Negan couldn’t hang on as his eyes rolled and something gave way below his waist.

“Jesus he pissed himself,” Sherry muttered.

Negan didn’t have time to acknowledge the comment as the fire drowned out his world and brought him to darkness. 

Dwight pulled the iron away, bringing with it pieces of flesh that had melted against the bottom. The ex-leader’s head dropped as he had already fallen unconscious. Dwight stared at his handiwork. The right side of his face was now a horrible bloody mess with strips of skin missing. He pursed his lips together feeling satisfied. Now they were on a more equal footing.

He looked at Rick, giving him his cue to fetch Siddiq.

“Now you know how it feels asshole,” he muttered to Negan, before walking away to return the iron to its proper place. After today, he vowed it would never be used again.

 

Negan felt the pain. It was a burning throbbing kind of pain. He groaned as he moved his fingers to touch the right side of his face and immediately felt the soft bandages. He opened his eyes and recognized the flat gray wall of the cell in front of him. He shifted and realized he was lying on his cot.

“Fuck.”

He wanted to think it had all been a dream, but as his fingers danced against the cottony bandage, he understood that reality had to be faced. He had been ironed. His own tool had been used against him, by a man that had also once been his.

“Fuck.”

He slowly rose to a sitting position and dropped his feet over the bed. He just wanted to go back into the darkness and forget what had happened, but the pain prevented the luxury.

“How does it feel?”

He glanced up and looked past the bars. Waiting just outside the cell was Rick, along with Siddiq. Negan wanted to curse him out hard, but didn’t have the strength.

“Fuck…how do…shit…you think?” It even hurt to talk.

“You want to be careful,” Siddiq warned as he watched him. “You’re going to need the time to heal.”

“FUCK YOU!...Shit!” The cry had stretched his mouth enough to stroke the fire. He sank against the wall, eyes scrunched shut. When he gathered himself, he looked at the men. “Pills…something for the pain…please.”

Siddiq looked at Rick who nodded his permission. The new Alexandrian doctor reached into his pocket and pulled out a single white pill from a bottle, then slipped his hand through the bars. Negan took a moment before getting to his feet and crossing over.

“I could have easily let you sit there in pain,” Rick pointed out. “But I’m better than that. I’m sure you weren’t.”

Negan groaned as he swallowed the pill. He never bothered to have the doctor spare criminals with pain relievers in the past. 

“But you’ll still be sitting in pain, because that pill isn’t very strong,” Rick added.

Negan glared at him before sinking back into misery against the wall. He didn’t want to acknowledge anything at the moment. He preferred to pretend it never happened.

 

Weeks later, the bandages were removed and Negan had his first chance to look in a mirror as Rick set it up across from him outside of his cell. But he couldn’t look. As soon as Siddiq pulled the bandages away, Negan tensed and felt the weight of shame pressing down on him. He couldn’t stop mentally cursing Dwight. At the same time he cursed himself for letting the man screw him over. 

He always prided himself on his looks, but it would be gone once he made it official by looking at his reflection. Instead, he ran his fingers over the way the pieces of skin twisted here and there. He felt the dips where pieces were gone. He could feel where areas melted together unnaturally. It didn’t feel normal when he moved his mouth or twitched his right cheek. There was no smoothness, just roughness.

“Take a look,” Rick said as he indicated the mirror, but Negan wouldn’t. “Your face matches what’s on the inside now.”

Negan felt his lip tremble slightly. He knew it was ridiculous to worry about looks in this world, but imagining his new face made him sick.

 

Some days later, the last person he ever expected to see again, walked into the room as Negan was crouched over on his cot.

“You haven’t seen yourself, have you?”

Negan cringed and raised his head to see Dwight calmly watching him. In a fit of rage he leaped up and charged. Dwight stepped back in time to avoid the hand that came through the bars.

“Count yourself lucky that I’m in here, otherwise I’d toss your ass in the fire.” 

Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. He gave himself a quick glance before turning away. The sight scared him. Dwight looked back at the mirror upon catching his agitation. 

“Look at yourself,” Dwight all but commanded. “Look at the new you.”

Negan had his head bowed, turned away from the glass on the wall. His fists were balled, hating the power Dwight was having over him. 

“Fuck you,” he muttered. 

After a long minute of silence, he slowly raised his eyes to face the mirror. 

He felt that nasty jolt of shock at what he was seeing. He wasn’t far off on how he imagined he looked. The flesh was twisted and discolored in a grotesque way. The whole right side seemed to sag in a bizarre fashion due to its melted appearance. Even some of his hair had been sacrificed as he noticed missing follicles. If someone had caught his face from just the side, they wouldn’t have recognized him. He didn’t even recognize himself. The scars weren’t easily ignored. Compared to his ex-lieutenant, Dwight looked normal. It was frightening and embarrassing. 

“That’s who you are,” Dwight said as he too looked in the mirror. “And you’re gonna remember that for the rest of your life.”

Negan didn’t want to believe it, but he knew he was right. He turned away from the mirror, cursing under his breath.

“We’re the same now,” he muttered, but Dwight was shaking his head.

“No. We’re not the same. Not the same at all.”

As he turned to leave, Negan stopped him.

“Did you fucking enjoy what you did to me?” he asked. He looked at his reflection again as his fingers traced over his new exterior.

“I don’t regret a damn thing I did to you. So yeah, I enjoyed it.”

With that, Dwight walked out of the door, leaving Negan to become reacquainted with himself.

**Author's Note:**

> I had a thought about Negan's use of the iron and wondered why I'd never seen him receive that punishment in fics. I've seen him punished in only a few fics, but never with his other infamous weapon 'The Iron'. Also I liked the idea of the wives getting back at him, as well as having Dwight dominate Negan and getting his revenge on the man.


End file.
